Diablo III Concept Art: Skeleton King

Blizzard Entertainment released the concept art of the Skeleton King as reward for reaching 925,000 Likes in the Diablo III Facebook. We ask all Blizzplanet visitors to catch up and “Like” previous images, and to check out soon to Like this Skeleton King concept art when it gets posted in Facebook. We are very close to achieving a million Likes. I heard there are some goodies coming as a reward for the million mark.

The Skeleton King is the first boss encounter within the Tristram Cathedral dungeon. I played the Diablo III demo showcased at BlizzCon 2008 and the Skeleton King was available.

Lore

Gamers may remember the Skeleton King as a boss in the original Diablo (1996) game — formerly known as King Leoric. Diablo attempted to possess King Leoric, driving him insane in the process. However, unsuccessful, Diablo possessed King Leoric’s innocent son Albrecht instead to bring about the Lord of Terror upon the world of Sanctuary. King Leoric wrought destruction over his kingdom, forcing Lazarus to slay his King and friend.

His death wasn’t lasting, nevertheless. King Leoric was risen by Diablo as the Skeleton King.

You will also find a ghostly quest giver in the Tristram Cathedral dungeon in Diablo III — King Leoric’s loyal servant and friend: Lazarus. He asks you to slay the Skeleton King.

Spoilers: Encounter Description

It took me a couple of tries to finally defeat him. When he rises his weapon you better run away, because he smashes it down on the ground [or on your head if you don’t move out].

Something that caught my attention is that several waves of minions enter the throne room during this boss event. The key to defeat the first boss in Diablo III is to hit the Skeleton King a few times, then attack the minions to both thin out their numbers and to randomly obtain a Health Globe. Rinse and repeat. Basically, players won’t want too many mobs filling up the room, nor lose too much health. It’s not a tank and spank encounter, but one of common sense using the mechanics given by the developers to your advantage in order to overcome this first challenge.